Irrespective of the Supreme Court’s final direction to the States on the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET), the State government will conduct the EAMCET next year, including the medical examination for the science students.
The medical stream test has to be conducted as admissions to veterinary and agriculture courses are based on it. So whether NEET is made compulsory or not, science students have to take the medical stream test of EAMCET if they wish to seek admissions in veterinary and agriculture courses.
Since almost all the aspirants appearing for the medical stream of EAMCET opt for veterinary and agriculture courses once the MBBS and BDS seats are finished, there is no point in worrying about NEET or EAMCET. “If NEET is made mandatory also they have to write medical stream of EAMCET for admission into other courses. So its better they concentrate on their preparation without worrying about the outcome in Supreme Court,” an official said.
The Supreme Court is likely to give its verdict in mid-January on whether States have to mandatorily opt for NEET or conduct their own tests for the next academic year. Some States, including Andhra Pradesh, have moved to Supreme Court seeking some more time to be part of NEET.
Meanwhile, the government is busy finalising the dates of all the entrance exams. APSCHE Chairman P. Jayaprakash Rao said that the dates of all entrance tests would be announced by January 10. The government has already decided to entrust the responsibility of conducting the tests to the same universities that conducted the tests this year. Even the Conveners are likely to be the same.
Fee structure
Prof. Rao also said that the process of finalising the fee structure for all professional courses would start soon and the notification concerned would also be issued in January. College managements would have enough time to submit their proposals so that AFRC could fix the fee accordingly. “We want to stick to the AICTE schedule on the academic calendar and will ensure that classes started on August 1 after completion of admission process by July-end,” Prof. Rao said.
